Netflix sets release dates for first original feature films

Netflix's logo at its office in Tokyo. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Netflix revealed its latest rollout of star-studded new films on Tuesday, with movies featuring Idris Elba, Adam Sandler and Michelle Yeoh topping its list of releases in the coming months.

The online streaming titan will debut Beasts Of No Nation - the story of a boy abducted from his family to serve as a child soldier in Africa - on Oct 16.

Written by award-winning Cary Fukunaga and starring British Golden Globe winner Elba, the film will be released globally on Netflix, and in select United States theatres.

The Ridiculous Six, a comic western starring Sandler, Luke Wilson and Nick Nolte will hit Netflix on Dec 11 - the first of four Sandler films to broadcast exclusively by the service.

Netflix was forced to defend the movie earlier this year after a group of Native American actors stormed off the set saying it used racially offensive stereotypes.

Yeoh takes up her role as Yu Shu-Lien in a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, will be available for streaming worldwide on Netflix in the first quarter of next year, after a 2015 release was pushed back.

It will also hit theatres in China and IMAX cinemas elsewhere.

Also starring Donnie Yen, Harry Shum Jr and Jason Scott Lee, the film is directed by martial arts choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping.

And Paul Reubens, who played the whacky children's TV character Pee-wee Herman in the late 1980s, is back in action in Pee-wee's Big Holiday.

Produced by Judd Apatow and featuring Joe Manganiello, the movie will be available for streaming in March 2016.

Netflix, which claims 62 million viewers in more than 50 countries, is the creator of original series such as House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. The company faces fierce competition from other online streamers Hulu and Amazon.

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